


Put A Ring On It

by kingcaroling



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Abby likes teasing her, Anxious Erin Gilbert, F/F, Kevin is also there but is he really, Marriage Proposal, Patty and Holtz are there for the ride, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28654998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingcaroling/pseuds/kingcaroling
Summary: "Guys", Abby takes the floor. She is shaking and slightly pale, "I have a confession to make."Jillian grins, "Abby Dabby, if this is about your engagement, I hate to break it to you, but the cards are out there."Abby rapidly nods, as her heart does flips and turns, "Yeah, well, not for me."Jillian frowns, "What do you mean?""I have no idea how that ring got on there."And it's Patty's turn to frown, "Well, obviously, Erin put it on your finger", she frowns deeper, "Right?"Abby shrugs, dumbfounded, "Not on my watch."
Relationships: Erin Gilbert/Abby Yates
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Put A Ring On It

Abby stops talking, mid-word, as her eyebrows slowly furrow in confusion at Patty's gaping expression. At the interruption, Holtzmann's eyes finally leave the papers Abby had been presenting to her, only to look up at her colleague, before following her eye sight and turning around to face Patty, who still had fixated wide eyes and a fallen jaw.

Letting out another loud gasp, this time with the hint of a smile creeping up on her face, Patty approaches Abby's desk, clapping, "When were you planning on telling us the big news, Mrs Big Fancy Lady?"

Abby pauses, "What?"

"C'mon, girl!", the historian hollers with a beam, "Flaunt us that ring!"

A frown, "What?"

"Quit joking around, babygirl, c'mon, lemme see that thing!"

Before Abby can let out a third 'What?', Patty's got her hand in her own grasp, her eyes trained on the shiny ring placed on her finger. And that's when Abby's eyes finally focus on the subject of matter; and, needless to say, she's left speechless.

Patty's roaring, gleeful laugh fills the room, "Oh, my good Lord! Okay, you know I wanna hear everything, man, fill me in. How did it go down? How're you feelin', man? God, isn't that _shiny!_ "

Just like that, the blonde engineer is creeping up on them with itchy fingers and a manic grin plastered on her face, "Abby, holy moly, it's big and shiny. How did I miss it before? I love big and shiny."

Patty rolls her eyes, "Of course you do, you're like an alley cat."

Wink, " _Meowza_."

It takes the duo a moment to first realize that Abby still hasn't moved a muscle. And when they _do_ realize, the two ghostbusters are quick to share a look; Abby isn't easily left speechless.

Holtzmann rests a careful hand on her friend's shoulder, "Abbers? You oak nuggins?"

"I- uh... Oh."

Patty sighs, "Oh, damn. Did we just put you on the spot? Was this supposed to be sum' kind of surprise? We can always pretend that-"

"Guys", Abby takes the floor. She is shaking and slightly pale, "I have a confession to make."

Jillian grins, "Abby Dabby, if this is about your engagement, I hate to break it to you, but the cards are out there."

Abby rapidly nods, as her heart does flips and turns, "Yeah, well, _not for me_."

Pause.

Jillian frowns, "What do you mean?"

Another pause.

"I have no idea how that ring got on there."

A third pause.

And it's Patty's turn to frown, "Well, obviously, Erin put it on there", she frowns deeper, "Right?"

Abby shrugs, dumbfounded. And Patty repeats, " _Right?_ "

"Not on my watch", the brunette manages to mumble out, getting once again lost on the mystery ring on her finger.

As if she were called out, the particle physicist in the building suddenly comes strolling down the stairs to the ground floor. Her eyes are focused on the numerous papers she has in one of her hands, while the other grips a now empty mug. The slim ghostbuster absently makes her way over to the so called coffee station of the firehouse, far from noticing the multiple pairs of eyes glued to her back.

The three colleagues simply watch in silence as Erin refills her coffee mug, and continue to wait, at complete loss of words, until she finally, _casually_ , lifts her eyes up.  
"What?"

While Patty lets out an absurdly loud laugh, Holtzmann simply raises an eyebrow, "Gone shopping lately, Gilly-Bert?"

Erin frowns, slightly, "No?

"Oh, so you've had this for a while, then", the blonde grabs Abby's hand and lifts it up to the physicist's sight.

And Erin goes pale. Even more so than Abby.

"Erin?"

"Oh- I, uh... It's not, um-"

The entire building goes silent. Except for Kevin, who's distractedly mumbling incorrect Salt-N-Pepa lyrics to himself over at his desk, but nobody's really paying any mind to it, not right now.

Abby finally manages to make a movement; a couple of them, actually. She retrieves her hand (and _the ring_ ) back from Holtzmann's grip, and takes one tentative step in Erin's direction. Her face has already gotten some of its color back, even though that doesn't mean she knows what she's doing any better than she did a minute ago, "Erin?", at least she's the one to call out this time.

Still, seeing as her girlfriend (?) remains still and very frightened looking, Abby takes another slow step, raising her hand (and _the ring_ ) along with her.   
"What is this?"

Through her panic, Erin takes notice that Abby is _moving_ , and it's happening in her direction. And so, while her face does not gain any of its color back, her body does move. She lets out a nervous laugh, "Oh- um... Okay. _Ha!_ So... This is a funny story. Um."

The slim physicist takes a _painfully_ slow sip from her coffee, while _painfully_ watching the other three ghostbusters (and _very painfully_ listening to Kevin's rendition of _'Shoop'_ ).

"Er?"

The brunette in the sweater vest clears her throat, "Uh-um, oh... Okay. So... I did purchase that. The ring. I bought it, yes. At a... store. Um. It was meant for you. To, um... wear. It. I mean, it still is. It's for you, it is for you. Um."

As she watches her girlfriend(?)'s panicked face, Abby regains a bit of her composure; she doesn't feel frozen anymore, and even allows herself to grow the tiniest of grins at Erin's ramble. It is quite cute, if she may say so herself, the way Erin is so nervous about this, as if Abby hadn't spent most of her life deeply enthralled by her colleague as a whole. Not that it's anything new for Erin to be nervous about something (and, in her defense, _this_ is something quite _big_ ), but also, it's not like that's gonna stop Abby, later that night as they lay in bed side by side, from telling her all about how dorky and adorable she had been that afternoon, a somewhat gushy statement which never fails to leave Gilbert with quite a red, sweaty face.

Meanwhile, Patty takes one look at Erin's trembling state, moving on from Abby's expectant, raised eyebrows to Holtzmann's highly entertained beaming face, and sighs. The tallest of the ghostbusters takes a careful step in the physicists' direction, "Okay, baby, you gotta breath. C'mon, smell the flower, blow the candle. Do it with me, breath, baby. Good."

Erin forces herself to send a quick, frantic nod in Patty's direction, "Yeah, okay. Um. Okay", a deep breath, "Okay", and her eyes fixate on Abby's shoes, "So. I bought that. Ring. It's been two weeks now and I was getting desperate. Maybe that took its toll on me? But, um... So. Okay. Last night, uh... Let's just say I freaked out? Kind of. Um. I put it on your finger while you were asleep."

Just as Abby is trying to keep her grin under control, she hears a bubbled out laugh coming from behind her, which, at least, manages to grab Erin's attention from the floor, and her eyes finally drag themselves up.

"And you thought that would _work?_ ", Holtzmann snorts through her wide beam and Erin averts her eyes from the group once again.

The particle physicist across the room glances all around, shifting on her two feet and grasping onto her papers and mug just a bit too tight; by now, she'd be starting to notice the clenching cramps on the tendons of her fingers if it weren't for the insane amount of fleeting thoughts already taking up all the space available in her mind right at that moment (surprisingly, _none_ of them about how her newly drawn out equations and graphs were now all found 100% crumbled in her hand).

"Honestly, I don't really know what I thought would happen", Erin mumbles under her breath before letting out an awkward, forced chuckle and looking back up at her colleagues, " _What was I thinking?_ Ha. Sorry, I used my weird voice, uh. I don't know... Really, this morning, I was- I thought about pulling the plug, I was almost just sliding it back out and putting it away, I mean, 'cause you sleep like a rock-"

And at that, Abby scoffs, "I would like to see you _try_ and get this baby back now."

And Erin pauses.

Now, had her body (in a sheer anxiety ridden way) not locked itself up, muscle by muscle, Erin is pretty sure she would've melted down onto the floor at hearing those words coming out of her girlfriend(?)'s mouth. Erin really envies just how _calm_ and _collected_ her girlfriend (?) manages to stay at a moment like that. Abby is really, _really_ glad that _that's_ the way she's passing off as.

They wait for Erin's response, and after a few coughs and a couple loose, stammered out syllables, she manages, "Is that a yes?"

And Abby, _oh, so very coyly_ , twirls a strand of her ponytail in between her fingers (the ones without any rings on them; she can't bring herself to move _that hand_ around too much yet), "Was there a question?"

Erin's mouth closes shut. She shrinks a bit into herself, eyebrows slightly furrowed and eyes slightly wide. The newly adopted expression only intensifies the roaring laughs coming from the other half of ghostbusters. Patty's clutching her stomach and stomping around in glee. As for Holtzmann, she maintains her wide beam but keeps her eyes open, trained on the pair of fiancées (?), not daring to even blink, because damn, _curse herself_ she would if she were to miss a single thing of whatever this is.

"I mean", Abby adds in, "I'd say the last question I've been asked, if I'm not mistaken, was maybe from last night? When the cab driver asked us where we were headed, you were there. Now, apart from that- I don't know, I mean, unless you got a new one for me?"

A beat goes by before Erin dares to speak up, "Are you going to make me say it?", in just a tiny, tiny voice.

When Abby shrugs nonchalantly and bats her eyelashes, Erin ruffs out a sore sigh, starting to roll her shoulders back and crack her neck to the sides. 

"You'll be alright, baby", Patty calls out from her seat on Abby's office chair, getting Holtz to solemnly nod along from her side, on top of the desk, "You got this, alright? It's just us here, sweetie. C'mon."

Erin nods with her eyes trained on the floor, "Alright", she mumbles out, turning to her side and setting down her papers and mug on the counter, before stretching her arms out and spinning back around to face her audience, "Abby-"

"Is your right knee itching or is it just me?"

Erin's deadpanned expression evokes a new round of laughter, "I'm not getting down on one knee."

Abby scoffs, "Come on, are you kidding? Are we doing this or what?"

"Abby, if I bend any one of my knees I don't think I'll be able to straighten them back up."

"I'll help you up, baby, c'mon", Patty butts in with a reassuring tone, "You got three pairs of arms right here at your disposal, just do it."

A long sigh is heard before the group watches as Erin starts to lower herself down to the ground. Holtzmann's loud whoops are sure to be heard from all 3 floors of the firehouse while the slim, _sweaty_ ghostbuster adjusts herself on top of her right knee. Abby's eyes lovingly and _nervously_ follow the motion of her fiancée (?) accompanied by a large smile taking up the rest of her face, as her free fingers feel every inch of the shiny ring that's placed around her slightly heavier one.

Once Erin is down on her knee and moderately positive she is just stable enough so that she won't fall on her side halfway through _it_ , she inhales sharply, facing the floor ahead and feeling incapable of stopping her own fingers from fidgeting rapidly. And then she looks up.

"Okay, I'm gonna do this. But, I mean- You're gonna- Promise you'll say yes? Because, Abby, if you say no, even as a joke, I don't think I'll be-"

"Who do you think I am?"

"You promise, right? You have to promise."

"Yeah, sure, just-"

From her place on the floor, few feet away from her fiancée (?), Erin desperately lifts up her pinky finger. Holtz crackles and Abby sighs. The shorter physicist huffs out an 'alright, alright' under her breath as she quickly steps forward, reaching to wrap her own pinky around Erin's before stepping back to her original position and looking down at her best friend, expectantly.

Erin's eyes flutter closed, along with a deep breath. She can feel her still very itchy fingers, hanging from the very tips of her arms, which are awkwardly resting by her sides.   
Opening her eyes at once, the brunette on the floor looks down at her frantic, nervous fingers, before lifting her head up and pausing as her gaze finds Abby's hand (and _the ring_ ).

She merely raises her hands up, slightly reaching towards the shiny piece of jewelry around her best friend's finger, "Could I have that?"

Abby defensively holds it close to her chest, "Are you kidding?"

"Please? Just-"

" _Alright_ ", groan, "Make it quick."

Erin waits for her fiancée (?) to pull _the ring_ out; she's got her open hands wavering up in the air and is biting her lip expectantly. When Abby steps forward to begrudgingly drop _the ring_ into her hands, Erin takes one last deep breath. 

The feeling of excitement grows dense around the room. Patty's and Holtzmann's smiles, which have been stretching wider and wider since _whatever this is_ started, are now at their peak. Erin shakily raises _the ring_ up, holding it securely with both hands, and Abby waits.

"Abby. Will you marry m-"

" _Mine!_ "

All in a quarter of a second, Abby snatches _the ring_ back with _the biggest_ smile painted across her face, slips it right back onto her finger, yanks Erin up from the ground, and before Gilbert can take one breath, she's wrapped tightly in between a warm pair of arms.

No matter how loudly Patty and Holtzmann are cheering (which is _very_ ), all Erin can hear is the rapid thumping of her heart pressed against Abby's chest, and she can feel the jumping veins on her forehead thumping right along. 

She lets out a wavering breath and speaks up, not surprised in the slightest by how hoarse her voice sounds when it manages to come out, "Was that a-"

"Yes", the smily whisper comes from the deepest crook of her neck.

And finally, Erin finds herself automatically raising her arms along to wrap themselves around her fiancée (!!!!!!!!). She fully recognizes that suddenly she has very little control over the wide beam that takes over her face as she buries her nose down into Abby's hair. They don't really know for how long they remained like that but both agree it was not long enough. But also, Patty's just doing her job.

"Alright", she speaks up, hopping off Abby's chair, "Y'all know this is the last thing I want to be doing right now, and you know I love you both, right, very happy for you, but you lovebirds have been hugging for nearly 20 minutes now and, you know... It's still a Wednesday, right? We're government funded, we gotta work."

Erin blinks a couple times, slowly opening her eyes and looking over Abby's shoulder; Patty is now stretching her legs, walking around, and Holtzmann is slouched on top of Abby's desk, her hands fiddling with the yellow and pink post-its and a lazy smile across her face. 

Breathing in and out, the taller physicist finally allows herself to pull her weight back from Abby and onto her own two feet, reluctantly unwrapping her arms from around her best friend. Once untangled, the pair of fiancées find each other's eyes. Erin quickly gets entranced by the hazy look taking up her fiancée's face, unaware that the still starstruck look she's got plastered on her own face is one of the main causes of the subject of her admiration.

Clearing her throat, Erin shakes her head quickly, breaking eye contact for a second, "Patty's right. We should..."

"Yeah."

"I mean, it _is_ the afternoon after all, ha."

Abby snorts, "Yeah, and these guys need us, can't go without us. _New York City, pfffff_."

Erin chuckles, airily, "Right."

"It's like, _hey, I just cleaned that up_ ", the shorter one makes a voice, " _Can you guys keep it like that for a second?_ "

"Yes", Erin giggles, trying to fight back the blushing across her cheeks, "The burden of being badass."

And Abby wheezes, "Exactly."

Abby watches with a soft grin as her fiancée offers her one last awkward, tight smile, nodding once at the floor and starting to turn around. She catches her elbow though, before Erin manages to slip away, and pulls her close in a whip. Their lips touch, merely for a moment, but still Erin finds herself unable to fight this new wave of redness that quickly gets painted across her face in a beat. After a second, Abby lets herself fall from the tips of her toes back to the heels of her feet.

She smiles up at her best friend, "Wanted to do that but thought we should keep it PG-13 in the workplace."

Erin huffs out a small puff of air, opening her eyes in a haze and weakly nodding along, "Yes..."

"After all, Kevin's here, right?", Abby playfully elbows Erin's side, just as Kevin himself pokes his head into view from his desk. 

"That I am, boss", and a wink. 

And Abby shoots him finger guns, "Nailing it, Kev."

After watching Kevin beaming at them and plopping back onto his chair, Abby follows Erin with her eyes as she awkwardly moves around to pick up her crumbled papers and mug of coffee. Spinning around to look back at her fiancée once more, Gilbert lets out a soft smile while bringing her mug up to her lips. Her face then spins into a quick wince as she coughs lightly, "It's cold", lets out an awkward chuckle and takes another painful sip before stumbling her way back up the stairs.

Seconds and seconds go by and Abby's eyes are still glued to the door through which Erin tripped into. The smile on her face doesn't waver; it couldn't even if she wanted it to.   
Her head tilts down to eye _the ring_ ( _oh, the ring_ ) once again, and that's when Holtzmann skips over to her side, resting her elbow on Abby's shoulder and her head in her hand.

" _Soooooo_ , what were we talking about over here, huh? Back in 3500 B.E.", wink, "Before Erin."

Abby slowly looks up to face Holtz, dumbfounded, "Math?"

"Yup", popping the P. 

And the stupid smile makes its way back to Abby's face, "Erin loves math."

"Erin loves _you_ , _Abberoo_."

She looks back down at _the ring_ , "Good."

**Author's Note:**

> Originally I was planning on writing this one as a Patty/Erin piece, but honestly there is no way that such piece of jewelry would go unnoticed by Patty for an entire morning. As for Abby, I really think if it were up to her to realize by herself, Erin would be facing the prospect of at least a week of sheer anxiety, "because I can't just take the ring back now, can I? It's been 4 days! But then again she really won't notice and she sleeps like a rock.."
> 
> The idea of writing a Patty/Erin engagement story isn't out of the table, though. I got my mind stuck on this headcanon of mine that Erin would be stressing herself a lot while planning the proposal because should she get down on one knee?? Or should she not????? Because I mean, Patty is really really tall so maybe it's not such a good idea, but damn it, she's such a sucker for romance!! And when the time comes and she does get down on one knee and then has to angle up her head a full 90° to look at her girlfriend's face, she realizes This Was A Mistake.


End file.
